Conjunctive Pronouns

Whom, whose, what, which, whoever, whatever, whichever are identical with the interrogative pronouns as to their morphological, referential and syntactical characteristics. They refer to persons and non-persons. The difference between the two subclasses lies in that the conjunctive pronouns, along with their syntactical function in the clause, connect subordinate clauses to the main clause. They are used to connect subject, predicative, and some adverbial clauses, or rather to indicate the subordinate status of these clauses, as the sentence may begin with the clause they introduce. (E.g. Who did it will repent. (who opens the subject clause). I know who did it. (who opens the object clause) They were what you call model girls. (what opens the predicative clause))

Whatever you may do you can’t save the situation. (whatever opens the adverbial concessive clause)

Conjunctive pronouns always combine two functions - notional and structural. They are notional words because they function as parts of the sentence within a clause and they are structural words because they serve as connectors or markers of the subordinate clause.

The compounds whoever, whatever, and whichever introduce subject and adverbial clauses and have a concessive meaning: (E.g. Whoever told you this may be mistaken. Whichever you choose, I’ll help you. Whatever may be the consequences, I insist on going on).

Relative Pronouns

Refer to persons and non-persons and open attributive clauses which modify words denoting these persons or non-persons. They are who, whose, which, that. Who, like its homonyms, has the category of case (who-whom), the others have no categories.

Relative pronouns, like conjunctive pronouns, have two functions - notional and structural: they are parts of the sentence and connectors between the main clause and the subordinate attributive clause they are used in. But unlike conjunctive pronouns they are always related (hence their name relative) to some noun or pronoun in the main clause. Compare the following sentences:

Conjunctive and relative pronouns do not coincide referentially: the conjunctive pronouns who and whose have only personal reference; the relative pronoun who has personal reference, but whose has dual reference (personal and non-personal); the conjunctive pronoun which has dual reference, whereas the relative which has only non-personal reference.

(E.g. The man who stood at the gate was Jim.

Then the man whose face I still could not see began singing.

The village whose roofs were seen in the distance was N.

I picked up the letter which was on the window sill).

Relative pronouns may function in the subordinate attributive clause as subject, object, attribute, and adverbial modifier (with prepositions).

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